“User experience” (UX) is commonly understood to mean a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system, or service. UX includes users' emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and accomplishments that occur before, during, and after use. UX encompasses all users and stakeholders in the design, development, deployment, and subsequent management and maintenance of a product, system, or service. Three primary factors are commonly considered to influence UX, including: the system, the user, and the context of use. Designers and stakeholders of systems, products, and services have paid particular attention to aspects of UX, including, for example, the system's usability in enhancing the “Customer experience” (CX). “Customer experience” is a subset of UX and focuses on a subset of users who are customers, typically in the stages of considering, buying, or obtaining post-sales customer service and support for the products and/or services offered by an organization. For the purposes of this document, unless stated otherwise, the term UX refers to both “User experience” and “Customer experience.”
UX is of interest to organizations that depend on motivating people to perform in desired ways, such as purchasing or using advertised products or services, performing job functions within a management context or voting for or against a promoted candidate or referendum. UX is also of interest to organizations that design computer systems or other devices and products, with which users interact, so that the systems, devices, or products exhibit high usability and efficacy.
Although the motivations of UX have been around for a long time, there is generally a lack of solutions or products in the marketspace to help automate and provide tools to improve the UX development process, including tracking the vast amount of information associated with UX development, as well as the management and maintenance of the UX after deployment. Also, known UX indices are generally qualitative-based rather than quantitative, which are subjectively used by developers and stakeholders in making decisions to modify the system, product, processes, or services in the interest of promoting UX.